WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC: POOL D - NICARAGUA VS ISRAEL

March 12, 2023

Ian Kinsler

LoanDepot Park

Team Israel

Postgame Press Conference

Israel 3, Nicaragua 1

Q. Obviously, a huge comeback win. What did you see from Dean Kremer? He went four innings. What did you see from him?

IAN KINSLER: That was a very clean four innings. He threw the ball really well. He kind of lost his release point there in maybe the second. He was kind of missing up for a little while and made a great adjustment and got back in the zone.

His off-speed stuff looked sharp. He seemed very much in control, so it was a very good outing for him.

Q. The decision to pinch-hit Danny Valencia, he told me earlier that he still wasn't feeling great. What went into the decision to have him pinch-hit?

IAN KINSLER: Well, he was ready to hit, and that was a big situation for us. A little bit late in the game, and any opportunity -- Danny is a clutch player, a big bat. Bases loaded, one out, that puts him at the complete advantage. So I felt like it was a very good spot to pinch-hit for Ty there.

Q. Is the starter tomorrow still going to be Gordon?

IAN KINSLER: Yep.

Q. Do you have any idea for Game 3?

IAN KINSLER: Not yet.

Q. Ian, they kept you off the board until the seventh inning. What allowed you to break through against Loaisiga, their best?

IAN KINSLER: I have no idea. I don't know what happened there. Obviously, their best pitcher, one of the best pitchers in the Big Leagues. We put up some good at-bats. We were fighting. That's what I expect from my team, to play all 27 outs and fight until the end. Today we were lucky enough to be on the right side.

Q. After your first win, now you've got Puerto Rico and then Dominican Republic, and then Venezuela. You're going to have --

IAN KINSLER: Good luck, right?

Q. -- three juggernauts one after another. What's the game plan after your first win?

IAN KINSLER: In this game in baseball anything can happen. Sometimes it's a crazy game. When you are playing one game as opposed a series, anything can happen. The team understands that.

You know, it's not necessarily the best team that wins the game. It's the team that plays the best that day. So we have just as good a shot as anybody. We're going to give our best shot and try to make things interesting in Pool D. Are we in Pool D? Yeah, Pool D.

Q. Is this a big victory before the Puerto Rico match and your impression on Puerto Rico game?

IAN KINSLER: I think every game in this tournament is big. You know, it feels like a Game 7. It feels like your last chance to make an impact and kind of move on to the next round.

I know we saw the pool in was it Taiwan maybe, with all teams tied 2-2. You try to win every game. Any game that's presented, that's the most important, and that's how we approached it today. Then tomorrow will be the same way regardless of opponent.

They're obviously really good teams. They're stacked. They have a bunch of experienced Major Leaguers, but we're going to give it our best shot.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about the mix of contributions from different players with different levels of experience that contributed to the victory?

IAN KINSLER: Yeah, absolutely. I think that's what we need to win these games is we have to have our whole lineup contributing. We only have 12 position players, and they all played today.

So there's going to be contributions even with the guys on the bench. They came in in important spots. So everybody on the offensive side understands that. We have a lot of arms. We kind of loaded up more on the pitching side, so we're able to mix and match a little bit better. Everyone understands that these games are -- they're going to be high intensity like they were today.

Q. Getting ready for Puerto Rico, do you have a plan with the team, considering the noise is going to be mostly one-sided with the fans here being majority Puerto Ricans?

IAN KINSLER: Yeah, I think we got a little taste of it today with Nicaragua. So hopefully that prepared us a little bit going in. We understand it's going to be loud. We watched the games last night. We watched the Nicaraguan game against Puerto Rico, and we know it's going to be loud, and probably as far as the fans are concerned, probably one-sided, but any noise is good noise for us. It helps the energy level and it makes things a lot more exciting.

Q. Speaking of noise, what did it mean to win today seeing Israeli flags in the stands, hearing Hebrew from the speakers?

IAN KINSLER: The more fans we get, the better. We had a couple of chants going there. We had some flags waving. So after this win, hopefully we get some more to come out to the ballpark and support us, but it was a big win for us.